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Ancestry UK

St Mary Magdalene Home, Paddington, London

The St Mary Magdalene Home was opened in 1865 30 Weymouth Street, Paddington. It was established as an adjunct to Queen Charlotte's Hospital for Unmarried Mothers, which was founded in 1753 as a maternity and lying-in hospital for 'deserving unmarried women with their first child'. After spending a maximum of fourteen days at the Hospital, a woman and her child could make use of the Home, whose objects were:

to receive unmarried women leaving the Hospital, for a period of one month; to find suitable employment for those able to work, means being taken to watch over their future career; to establish an Infant Home for the children of such as proved worthy of future assistance, the mothers in all such cases to contribute towards the support of their children; and to obtain the services of a Visiting Chaplain, who, in conjunction with the Lady Superintendent, should administer religious instruction to the women.

The house in Weymouth Street could not be secured on a permanent basis and when no other convenient premises could be found in the neighbourhood, the Home was closed in 1867. In 1868, however, a suitable house was acquired at 14 (later renumbered as 26) Ranelagh Road (now Lords Hill Road), Paddington, where operation of the Home was resumed. It was run by the Sisters of St Mary's, Wantage, and in 1890 had 56 inmates.

Admission required a payment (in 1890) of £13, payable in advance in quarterly instalments, plus 5s. a week to support the child once it reached the age of six weeks. Also needed were a recommendation from a clergyman or respectable householder, a medical certificate of health, and a "Queen Charlotte's letter" accepting the woman for confinement and lying-in at Queen Charlotte's Hospital. Inmates were expected to remain at the Home for 12 months, when efforts would be made to find them suitable employment.

St Mary's continued in operation until the 1920s. In the 1880s and 1890s, had a independently run companion establishment at Folkestone.

Records

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Bibliography

  • None identified at present.

Except where indicated, this page () © Peter Higginbotham. Contents may not be reproduced without permission.